So I feel like it should be obvious why naming a public software release after a raw material is a bad idea on a number of levels... "Today, CISA, in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, announced the public availability of Thorium."

www.cisa.gov/resources-to...

"There are three kinds of magic," said Wizzler, handing us each a balloon. "You can control tigers, you can shoot tornadoes from your fingers, or you can fly by holding your breath. The color of confetti inside your balloon will reveal which kind of power you have." I felt the panic rising in me. What if my confetti turned yellow, indicating that I was a Tiger-Talker? My family, a long line of proud Tornado-Fingers, would disown me. Could I ever return home, bearing such shame? I tried to calm myself as I readied the ceremonial safety pin. Green, I thought, willing my hopes into reality. Please be green. I popped the balloon, involuntarily shutting my eyes. When I opened them, would I see the green I hoped for? The yellow I feared? What if, gods forbid, the confetti were blue? I opened my eyes, seeing shock on the faces of my classmates. Wizzler himself stared at me, wide-eye. Looking down, I saw myself covered in confetti... purple confetti.

“I don’t understand,” I growled, my body trembling with pain. “I combined eighty percent Earth-elemental mana with twenty percent Fire-elemental mana (Type B), focused through a twenty-four-sided icositetragon made of yellow topaz. This, in conjunction with my blood type, star sign, sense of humor, and nickname, should have produced a blazing column of lightning to vaporize my enemies. Instead, it made a big bubble that smells like fresh laundry. Why?” Skullgrumbler began to laugh. “You fool! You don’t even realize…” he squealed. “You’re facing east!”

“It’s whatever you want,” explained Magemaster Grampledog. “Magic is just whatever you want.” I knew he was speaking in riddles, but I couldn’t grasp his hidden meaning. “So the rules are…” Grampledog lit a sliver of smokereed. “No rules. You say some words and you wave a stick and whatever you want just happens. You don’t even need the stick.” His wisdom still eluded me. I stared into his face, trying to decipher what he was really saying. “No, listen.” Grampledog snapped his fingers and his desk turned into a pile of chicken nuggets. “I didn’t even know that would happen.” His hat then came alive and began to yodel. “It’s pandemonium,” he explained. “It’s complete nonsense.”

In my experience there are three kinds of fantasy magic novels:

Electroreception in treehoppers: How extreme morphologies can increase electrical sensitivity | PNAS The link between form and function of an organism’s morphology is usually apparent or intuitive. However, some clades of organisms show remarkable ...

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

I see 40-50 kids everyday with lunches in their hands

cause our library provided them for free all summer.
We had out snack bags to everyone of all ages, all year.

People in this county are less hungry because of the public library

I regret to inform you all that I have been allowed inside an art museum.

Any tips on boosting coding confidence? Any place that is a good practice zone? I'm scared of just crying in the coding interview because of all the pressure of needing this job but feeling like I don't know enough yet. I have until the monday after next to study up.

Just an FYI for non-medical professionals, this is referring to a lumbar puncture, which is usually to evaluate for infectious diseases affecting the brain. I absolutely support more doctors (ESPECIALLY in #primarycare) running for office, even more so in times like these.

That’s how you write a push alert

www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

Am I going to leverage all this newfound attention to invite lovely, pretty, handsome, and beautiful people to DM me?

I just might. I just might.

A photo taken in early evening shows sunset tones over the peaks of a roof about five stories off the ground in the foreground, and a college campus comprised mostly of midcentury buildings spread out below it and a wider cityscape leading away towards a lake further away.

I shared some of these photos from an old phone before, but I think enough time has passed to surface more of them.

About a decade ago, I had reason to poke around the Illinois Institute of Technology's vacant Main Building before it was cleaned up for redevelopment, and found access to the roof.

All of us: Aw man, Nintendo's probably gonna be cautious about how they market Luigi for a while.

Nintendo: FUCK IT WE BALL LUIGI IN HITMAN ON THE SWITCH 2

Him: Can I set up my unenclosed robot arm here?
Me: You mean in the evacuation corridor?
Him: Is that a problem?
Me: It is far too early to start drinking.

my favorite videogame is tailoring my google history and social media presence to get the largest possible number of federal agents interested in obscure aquatic lichens

I appreciate that Duolingo’s current lesson starts with “I am tired” and “I am not okay.”

Two BIG wins in Motnana!

We killed two anti-trans bills today (a drag ban & a bill requiring CPS to remove trans kids from parents).

I'm so grateful for Montana Democrats, who have stood unwavering in their support of trans rights. And grateful to all the Republicans who said enough is enough.

In terms of the female bald Centauri, some of those were skull caps, and others weren't; we let it be known that we wanted to support women going through chemo or other treatments who had lost their hair by casting them here, money that could also help pay for medical bills.

Me getting out of a very worn-out taxi

Kind of amazing that some of the cars used as taxis in Nouadhibou are still rolling.

Sharing a webpage that has a downloadable PDF on the state of Trans/Intersex Rights in America including what to do
transequality.org/news/trump-d...

It's easy to feel overwhelmed as a trans person right now. Being overwhelmed makes it easy to enter a freeze state or bootloop on bad news. I don't find comfort in telling myself it will be OK because I don't know that. I do find peace in owning each moment as it comes, doing or resting on purpose.

I’m so happy to have trans folks in my life. Also, why are so many of them good at rust??

WHY WOULD YOU TALK TO YOUR LAWYER ON FB MESSENGER

WHY WOULD YOUR LAWYER TALK TO YOU ON FB MESSENGER

WHY IS YOUR LAWYER YOUR FB FRIEND

STOP IT

Winning 1st place in a programming competition must feel terrible. You were so close.

So hey, let’s start off 2025 maybe making somebody’s life better in a small tangible way. What is a small practical thing—object, lifehack, whatever—that solved a small annoyance for you?

For me, did you know you can buy clips with elastic specifically to hold the corner of your fitted sheet on?

a couple of baking sheets with a gray concrete like batter and rectangles cut out

gray rectangular cookies that look way too much like concrete

a gingerbread house that looks like it's made out of concrete, and it's a brutalist style highrise

a baking sheet with a 7-story brutalist gingerbread apartment building on it. There are carrots and celery used as landscaping. The baking sheet is on a concrete floor which looks exactly like the gingerbread.

Pictures from that time I made a brutalist gingerbread house - use buckwheat bread to get that concrete look! 😂
#architecture #brutalism

Omg i love it

YouTube video by DØVYDAS Violinist Asks If I Can Play Pirate Metal and Challenges Me to a Duel

Im telling you if you got yhe 18 mins watch this he makes pirate metal on the spot with one of the violinist//Its a good halesome watch
youtu.be/-BoYyDsiNfA?...

Right, it's December 1st, and I said I'd do a 100 post thread on here instead of Twitter for Threadapalooza this year... but also it's late and I don't have much energy left, so here's the start of one:

1. This will be a thread about running an Internet community.

An ink wash and black pen drawing of a white woman’s feet and legs from mid-calf down; she has her toes pointed ballerina style in deep water, probably treading water. From out of the dark water on the right, the webbed and scaly paw of the Creature of the Black Lagoon reaches toward her ankle, as if to claw her playfully or pull her under.

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 5: the Creature of the Black Lagoon!

A piece of movie fan art that I did for a spooky art challenge one year. Ink wash using watercolor markers and black ink for definition. One of the few times I managed to define an entire image with shading. I still like this one. :)

A lit Christmas tree with a 6 pointed star atop it standing beside a stone hearth across which are strung five knit stockings and above which hangs a large curved Klingon sword of honor.

The stockings were hung by the bat'leth with care.